Dodge has confirmed with this first sketch that it aims to again recreate some of the company's early muscle-car magic conjured by the Charger name.

The 2006 Charger, a stout and roubust four-door that carries a rakish roof line and the large, egg-crate face of the company's performance car and truck division, also replaces Dodge's Intrepid NASCAR entry. It looks "almost like a four-door coupe" said Dr. Dieter Zetsche in an exclusive interview on Friday.

The Charger will debut at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit in January 2005, and is expected to enter showrooms in the spring of 2005. True to its power image, it will carry with it the much-vaunted, 340-hp Hemi engine under the hood as an option. Its base engine is expected to be a 3.5-liter V6 making 250 horsepower.

The 2006 Dodge Charger, alongside its NASCAR counterpart. The NASCAR version will deubt at the 2005 Daytona 500.

When the Charger first appeared in 1966 it was an enthusiasts' dream with high power, great performance and slick style that competed and won on oval tracks as well as drag strips.

In the early 1970s, however, thanks to government-mandated emissions constraints and rising gas prices, the Charger began a long and steady fall from car guy grace. It reached its nadir in 1981 when the company took the once-proud name and attached it to a thoroughly dreadful front-drive coupe in an effort to capitalize on its heritage and move units.

The new regime at DaimlerChrysler understands it doesn't have the benefit of overpromising and underdelivering. "We have to get the product right everytime," Zetsche said.

Pricing for the car will likely start at just below the Chrysler 300, at around $23,000.

Considering how tough this beast appears in sketches, can you imagine what the high-end SRT-8 version will look like?

I never looked at it that way, and you're right. But I still wanted the concept produced that they had. For me it would have been the only other car to seriously consider against the GTO.

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I LOVED the concept, and even up to last year it was still making trips to misc. auto shows. Even if they didn't go with just like it, something close would have been nice.

If they bring the Charger name back (and they are obviously), I hope they at least put the flying buttresses (?sp) on it. I think that that was a great design part of the original, and they would do well to replicate it in amodern way on the new model.

On a side note, do you happen to have pics of the 05 GTO? I'd like to see how it looks compares to the 04 style-wise...